


Snow

by Full_Moon_Lover



Series: 25 Days of Christmas [24]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Christmas Eve, Fluff, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Snow, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 21:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9026362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Full_Moon_Lover/pseuds/Full_Moon_Lover
Summary: “You’re my new neighbour and we’ve never spoken but you saw me shovelling snow all day and I guess it must be pretty obvious how cold I am because you brought me a jacket and hot cocoa."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 24! Can you believe we're so close to the end?

Right from the start, Dan could tell that this was not going to be his day. He got up early as usual to head in to work since he was one of the unlucky people forced to work on Christmas Eve. It didn’t take him long to get ready and, pretty soon, he was on his way out. 

He encountered his first problem of the day right as he opened the front door and shivered from the cold air that drifted inside. His whole driveway was covered with snow and there was absolutely no way Dan was going to be able to take his car out and set off to work.

Walking all the way to work was out of the question with the cold weather and snow so that only left Dan with one option. He was going to have to get his shovel from the garage and shovel the snow in his driveway just enough to be ablate get his car out.

It turned out to be easier said than done. It took Dan ten minutes to even find the shovel he had barely ever used since he moved into this house on his own before he suddenly remembered he had absolutely no clue how to shovel snow. _If I just shovel snow from my driveway and throw it somewhere else, won’t I be piling it up elsewhere?_

After twenty minutes of walking up and down his driveway, staring at the snow piled up and occasionally poking at it with his shovel, Dan finally gave up on ever getting to work on time and called in sick, hoping his coughing and sniffling over the phone sounded believable enough.

Regardless of having to miss work, Dan was still determined to shovel his driveway. One could never know when he would need to use the car and Dan couldn’t risk ending up unable to get anywhere in case of an emergency just because of a bit of snow.

In cases like this, Google was his best friend. He quickly typed in ‘How to shovel snow from driveway' and face palmed when he read the first few steps that showed up.

  1. Start early in the day
  2. Have a plan 
  3. Avoid lifting snow by pushing it instead 
  4. Maintain good posture
  5. Lift correctly



There wasn’t a single thing he had been doing right. Dan handout started early in the day since he hadn’t even known his driveway would be covered in snow. He had no plan whatsoever other than knowing his goal of getting a snow-free driveway and he had just spent the past twenty minutes poking and pushing at the snow which was apparently very bad. Why had his parents never taught him how to properly shovel a driveway?

He decided that the next best thing was to read through the last two steps, which were the only ones he hadn’t messed up, and try and get stated on some shovelling. Now, if only he could understand the last two steps.

Dan had absolutely no idea on what consisted as good posture when shovelling snow and he also had no idea what ‘lift correctly’ meant. “This is the most useless instructions I have ever read”, he said out loud, just barely keeping himself from straight out yelling. If he had known how to lift snow correctly, he would not have needed to read the article in the first place.

In the end, Dan decided that his best possible solution was to wing it and hope for the best. He would just have to pretend like the snow was sand and he was at the beach trying to build a sandcastle like when he was young. The shovel was a bit larger than the one he had used at the beach when he was little but the idea was pretty much the same. He forced himself to ignore the little voice inside his head telling him that making a sandcastle at the beach when he was a child and shovelling his driveway from snow where two very different things and he was going to end up failing miserably.

Dan was so busy arguing with himself in his head and trying to shovel as successfully as possible that he did not notice his new neighbour watching him from his window. If he had, he would have seen the perplexed look on Phil’s face as he watched his crazy neighbour shovel his driveway from snow while it was still snowing.

“What the hell is he doing?” Phil asked himself, trying, and failing, to get a better look.Why would anyone go outside in such a weather? And to shovel a driveway? It made no sense. Not to mention that his neighbour seemed to only be wearing a thin long sleeved shirt outside in a below zero degrees celsius temperature. Why did he always get stuck with the weird neighbours?

 

*

 

Dan was completely freezing. He had been trying to shovel his driveway for the past three hours and it seemed to him as if the driveway was looking exactly as it had done in the morning. At this point, he wasn’t even sure why he was even bothering to keep on trying. He was obviously not going to work and he didn’t really need to be anywhere today that would require his car. 

At first he kept on going with the excuse of having access to his car in case of an emergency. The colder he started to feel, the louder the little voice inside his head reminding him that he could always call the emergency number if it was something that serious. Deep down, Dan knew that the only reason he was still even attempting this was his pride.

When he first moved out to live on his own, he was pretty sure most of his family actually thought he wouldn’t make it out on his own for very long. He had obviously found it hard in the beginning to adapt to actually having to cook food himself even though he had never done so before and learning how to wash his clothes but, in time, he had managed. He refused to prove his family right over something as stupid as shovelling his driveway from snow.

Dan knew that he was going to have to give up soon and head back inside. His arms and legs were aching, he was a shivering mess and he was also pretty sure he could no longer feel his fingers from the cold. Staying outside any longer in this weather wearing only the thin shirt he was would be madness.

Just as he dropped his shovel on the ground and looked at it heatedly to determine whether it was worth kicking it or not, he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He quickly turned around and saw his new neighbour standing behind him, holding a jacket and a mug in his hands.

Dan had obviously seen his new neighbour around the area but he had only been living next to him for a few weeks so they had never actually gotten around to introducing themselves and talk. At least that’s the excuse Dan always used even though he was well aware of the fact he would have never gone up to a stranger to introduce himself, no matter how long said stranger was living next door to him.

He looked at his neighbour in curiosity, not really sure over what he was supposed to do. Introducing himself would probably be a good idea but since he hadn’t actually been the one to approach his neighbour, he wasn’t sure if that was what he should do. _Why do I have to be so awkward?_

Thankfully, his neighbour ended up being the one to break the silence and Dan couldn’t have been more grateful. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been out here shovelling snow for quite a while and it’s really cold today so I thought maybe you would like to borrow a jacket? You look as if you’re freezing and I don’t think that shirt is doing much against the cold.”

Dan’s first reaction was to get defensive and tell his neighbour just where he could shove his jacket. He felt self conscious over his inability to do something as simple as shovelling a driveway and felt as if his neighbour’s comments were judgemental.

Taking another look at his neighbour, it didn’t seem as if he was the kind of person to come outside in the cold just to gloat over a stranger’s inability to do something. He actually looked genuinely worried and Dan could feel his cheeks turning red when he realised his neighbour was actually really attractive.

He almost declined the offer for the jacket politely and headed back inside but he kept thinking of what would happen if he just tried to keep the conversation going instead. After all, his neighbour had gone through all the trouble of coming out in the cold himself to bring him a jacket so he must be nice as well apart from attractive.

Dan smiled shyly at him and took the jacket, quickly putting it on. He couldn’t hold in a sigh of relief at finally having on something warm rather than just a thin shirt. Hopefully, he would start warming up soon and maybe even get the feeling back in his fingers. “Thanks”, he said to his neighbour, feeling genuinely grateful over his kindness. “I’m Dan by the way, I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet.”

I’m Phil and you’ve very welcome. I made myself some hot chocolate and decided to bring you some as well, if you want it. There’s nothing better than some hot cocoa to properly warm you up and I even added some tiny marshmallows on top.”

Dan was left to stare open mouthed at this stranger who had gone through so much trouble just to help out someone who had been stupid enough to be out in this weather in the first place. He almost felt bad accepting the hot chocolate, knowing that it was his own fault he was freezing but at the same time he didn’t want to offend Phil.

He hesitantly took the mug from Phil and took a small sip, closing his eyes at the taste of chocolate and feeling the warmth running through him. Dan had really needed that after the three hours he had just spent and he turned to thank Phil again. His words died in his throat when he saw Phil looking at him weirdly. “Is everything okay?”

Phil chuckled and nodded. “Everything’s fine. I was just wondering why you were shovelling the snow from your driveway in this kind of weather when you know it’s just going to end up like that again since the snow hasn’t stopped.”

Dan could feel himself turn bright red, quite aware of how stupid he must have looked to all his neighbours. “At first I started doing it because I needed to take my car out to go to work but then it turned into a pride thing”, he admitted with a shrug. “Let’s just say i wanted to prove I can handle anything on my own.”

Phil accepted his answer with a nod and shivered when a gust of cold air hit him. “I don’t want to offend you or anything, but you weren’t doing a very good job shovelling your driveway”, he said, trying to bite back a laugh. The last thing he wanted was for Dan to get offended and walk away in a huff. “If you want you can come to mine to finish your hot chocolate. It’s freezing cold out here and your hands look as if they’re about to start turning blue. Maybe I can explain how to properly shovel snow?”

Dan really hoped he wasn’t mistaken but it actually seemed as if Phil was flirting with him and trying to get him to stick around. He couldn’t be too sure since he wasn’t really an expert at these sort of things but Dan was not about to waste a perfectly good opportunity. “That sounds like a great idea, if you don’t mind. I really am freezing outside and I might as well come with you so I can return the mug once I’m done with the hot chocolate.”

Phil agreed so, together, they started making their way inside. They were both looking forward to warming up inside and maybe get to know each other a little better. 

 

*

 

Hours later, as they were sitting in front of the fireplace sipping on some mulled wine and thinking about how they got to this point, Dan was the one to break their comfortable silence. “Do you have anything to do for Christmas lunch tomorrow? I’m making pot roast.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: I actually genuinely googled 'how to shovel snow from a driveway'. We don't get snow where I'm from so I needed a bit of help. The list is seriously the first thing that popped up on Google.
> 
> Fun fact 2: I wrote the last part of this fic while kind of drunk after a Christmas Eve party. 
> 
> Personally I think it turned out quite well, let me know if you agree.
> 
> Tomorrow is Christmas and the last day of the 25 Days of Christmas. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it so I can't imagine what I'm going to do tomorrow when it actually ends. I won't say much today since I want to leave that for the last day. You should prepare yourselves for a long ass end note tomorrow, I want to end this wonderful adventure by thanking everyone who made this possible. 
> 
> So, for the last time, stay tuned for Day 25 tomorrow!


End file.
